Nutramigen - experiences and advice please!

My beautiful 4.5 week old DD is one unhappy baby. Diagnosed with reflux we've been on Gaviscon for 2 weeks with Colief with no difference apart from horrendous constipation. She won't lie on her back at all and is only sleeping on me and DH,which means we are not sleeping.

GP has said she is too small for ranitidine and has given us Nutramigen to try. 6 bottles in and it has been worse than ever. She did have a proper poo but has screamed non stop. She drinks it fine but is stiff as a board when we try to wind her and the screams are awful.

Has anyone else used Nutramigen? Will it get better? Should I still use the Gaviscon or try Carobel??

DC2 and 3 have been on Nutramigen, both allergic to dairy. DC1 should have been but as a new parent I didn't know how to see the signs of her dairy intolerance. She used to throw up whole bottles minimum 3 times a day, to the point it affected her weight gain. Nutramigen is for DC who can't take dairy (Neocate for the severe cases). It sounds like there are 2 issues going on, the reflux and the pain. Possibly related, possibly not. Reflux can be caused by dairy allergy/intolerance, the digestive system can't digest it hence it comes out whichever way it can, I assume that is why GP has given you Nutramigen. Would her skin get sore (slightly red) with normal formula? That would be a clue that DD is allergic to dairy.

The pain could be related to allergy/intolerance causing cramps or it could be unrelated eg colic or constipation.

DS is allergic to milk and soya and had severe reflux. We started on nutramigen which luckily he took fine as it smells vile but it took a winning combination of neocate, ranitidine, onmaprazole and carobel to help him. Three months later and he's just having neocate.

If it isn't helping, please go back to the GP for help.

I have no idea if it's safe, but a friend suggested a drop of vanilla essence in the made up nutramigen feed. Could be worth asking GP/HV?